The passage above is extremely descriptive, however this style of writing suits this novel told from the point of view of an uneducated youth, driven by overpowering feelings of fear, shame, and hate. Wright worked within the literary tradition known as naturalism. Naturalists wanted to collect social data in such a way as to give a scientific explanation for their characters’ behavior. I feel that Wright goes beyond this; at times he makes this story feel like more like a nightmare than social science. Wright was also attracted to the horror and detective stories of Edgar Allan Poe. This explains his means behind this colorful passage. “Then blood crept outward in widening circles of pink on the newspapers, spreading quickly now…The head hung limply on the newspapers, the curly black hair dragging about in blood.” (Native Son p106 Book 1: Fear) These lines create an image in the reader’s mind. Wright wanted to leave a mark and by using these graphic paragraphs he is able to do so. He uses imagery throughout the novel. These patterns include beasts, the rat, Bigger hunted as an animal, blacks shown as wild animals and Bigger portrayed in the newspapers as a gorilla; blindness, Mrs. Dalton’s literal blindness and the other characters’ figurative blindness; walls, the wall of the Thomas’ apartment and of Bigger’s jail cell and the “looming white walls”(Native Son Book 1:Fear) of Jan and Mary in the car.

I find this passage from Native Son to be extremely graphic and brutal. Wright’s imagery in this novel is often vicious and elemental. He frequently repeats this image. It constantly is reminded to the reader because it keeps running in and out of Bigger’s mind. Wright wrote this story in third-person, however it is neither objective or omniscient. Almost throughout the novel, the reader sees the story through Bigger’s eyes, and this is how Wright choose to show the story. I think he writes it this way in order to let the reader sympathize with Bigger. Otherwise this central character would appear abhorrent. Although, it is hard to understand whether Wright approves of Bigger or condemns him. I feel that by introducing the character of Max, it shows that Wright neither approves nor condemns. It shows that he understands what Bigger is feeling, but does not totally agree with it. He wants to show that this feeling that Bigger has is simply the cause of racial discrimination. When Wright presents Max’s speech to the judge in Book Three, he says that Bigger could only understand Max’s tone of voice, not his words. That is because these are the words of Wright. Wright uses Max to express himself, not Bigger. Bigger merely helps Wright to express himself.

Some topics in this essay:
Native Son, Son Wright, Dr Stockmann, Bigger Bigger, Henrik Ibsen, Jan Mary, Act II, Writing Assignment, Bigger Thomas, Southern Whites, native son, enemy people, richard wright, racial discrimination, bigger thomas, black response, head hung limply, head hung, limply newspapers, hung limply, spreading quickly, newspapers curly black, newspapers spreading quickly, limply newspapers curly, curly black hair,